The hugely popular 'boutique' style music festival now in its third year on the Isle of Wight expanded dramatically in size, capacity and surface area this year - almost doubling - for producers Loudsound. Headline acts included The Pet Shop Boys and the Scissor Sisters.
HSL has also been involved with Bestival since its inception, and once again worked closely with event production manger Lee Charteris and Loudsound's Jim King and Jo MacKay in co-ordinating all the site's technical production and infrastructure.
They brought ML Executives onboard to supply the main stage's VDosc sound system and also co-ordinated with Star Events, site-wide suppliers of staging and structures. HSL also brought in DJ gear guru Jason Quinn, complete with his own executive Landover just to sort out the supply of over 16 DJ set ups and keep them running throughout the weekend. Steven Abbiss was asked to design lighting schemes for all venues across site. The lighting crew chief was Tim Oliver and the audio crew chief was Graham Ramsdale.
"It was as much an exercise in personnel management as it was in technical production," explains Stevens, "and at the end of the day we saw some fantastic teamwork in what was a very short 3-day get-in timescale."
Charteris says: "Once again Ian and the guys did a fantastic job on sound and lights. Due to the extended hours in some arenas, the techs worked a rota system that provided constant cover for nearly 400 artists and performers."
Sound wise, HSL supplied Community systems to all venues other than the main stage, apart from the Jack Daniels Rock 'n' Roll Stage, which featured a Turbosound system and The Guardian Lounge, which went Nexo.
Lighting wise, all venues were designed to be as interchangeable and adaptable as possible - to cope efficiently with last minute changes in the specs. A typical Bestival venue lighting rig contained either Robe or Martin Professional moving lights plus a selection of PARs, ACLs and Molefey generics, with an Avolites desk for control. Where possible lighting was rigged to structural elements of the tents or on stands or the stage floor. Some of the smaller tent's lightshows were run in stand-alone or remote mode. The outdoor Bandstand was lit with IP rated PARs and had a Community Wet outdoor audio system.
On the main stage, Abbiss maximised every spare millimetre of headroom and space in the 15 metre Orbit style structure, with many of the 12 motors sitting rigged inside the trusses. He took into account the specific lighting requirements of both Pet Shop Boys (LD Carl Burnett) and the Scissor Sisters (LD Dave Ross) when creating his generic design, which also had to cater for a wide variety of other performers and artists. Moving lights were Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 1200 ATs - 22 of each type plus PARs, ACLs, Molefeys with scrollers and Atomic strobes, all run from a WholeHog II and a wing.
Stevens says: "It's been amazing to see Bestival and its fantastic vibes and friendly atmosphere gain popularity so quickly. Once again we've really enjoyed working with Lee Charteris and the rest of the Loudsound team to help produce something unique and special with world class production values."
(Chris Henry)
